


what i meant to say

by aelisheva



Category: Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
Genre: #GiveWandaAGirlfriend!, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Post-Canon, and her cute farmer gf, the adventures of wanda the moneylender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22634563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelisheva/pseuds/aelisheva
Summary: Lately, Wanda keeps hearing from the same customer over and over again….not that she minds.
Relationships: Wanda Vitkus/Original Female Character
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	what i meant to say

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jain/gifts).



> Happy Valentine's Day, Jain! This fluff was really fun to write, and I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> ****cw: some fatshaming and mentions of period-typical anti-semitism.

The first time it happened, it was actually on purpose. At least that’s what Estera says. 

The two of us first met in the start of spring, when the world had barely started to shake off all of its cold and wind. Well, our part of the world in Lithvas, at least. The Staryk kingdom was probably as unchangingly cold as ever. (And Miryem was probably as busy with her queenly duties as ever.)

I looked around at the field of hard, frozen grass I was standing in. A sign shoved in the dirt announced that this was “PENZAK FARM.” Although it didn’t look much like a farm, aside from the grass and the wooden fence that stretched behind the little house out front. Where were all the animals?

As it turns out, that was what this girl needed help with. “I need a loan to buy my first cow...I know the sign says ‘farm,’ but the whole affair is still under construction,” Estera Penzak cracked. She had a nice smile. The red kerchief she used to pull back her bushy brown hair was embroidered with a small white dove. I wondered how long that stitching had taken her. I wanted to ask her about that...Instead I just asked her how much she’d need for the loan.

We spent a little while talking in the field like that, setting up the terms of her contract. Then she took the payment reminder note I gave her. “Alright,” she started, “so when my payment is due in a month or so, did you want to come back over here and chat some more?”

I jumped. She looked down. “I’m sorry, Miss Vitkus. Didn’t mean to be rude. But I noticed you were looking a lot at my embroidery, and...maybe when you came over for your payment I could show you how I did it?”

“No, that wasn’t rude at all!” I started. “Just a little surprising, that’s it...Being a moneylender means people hardly want to see me just to talk. Or at all,” I added.

“You’re funny, Miss Vitkus,” Estera laughed, and her smile seemed worth more than all the gold pieces in the world.

___

A little while after Estera taught me some kerchief embroidery (just a tiny daisy in a corner, to start out), she called me back over again. “I need another loan, Miss Vitkus, for more bottles to sell milk in.”

I slowly drew out my paper and ink.

“What?”

“Nothing, Miss Penzak, it’s just...didn’t the price of glass bottles just go  _ down _ a bit?”

“Well, yes...but I wanted your financial guidance on the matter,” she winked.

____

A little while after  _ that, _ I was called back again. “Oh, Miss Vitkus! It’s so good to see you again!” She was smiling as widely as I was, and I was happy for that. “I need another loan, as I’m going to make my own little apple orchard -- to sell, not to eat myself,” she added, in a tone that barely sounded like she was joking.

I blinked. “Why would I think you’d want to eat it all yourself?”

She stared at me a bit, then shook her head. “No, no, not  _ you _ , Miss Vitkus. Others in town. In case you haven’t noticed, they all think I’m a cow as well,” she said wryly, gesturing to her round face and build that was similar to my own. “‘Takes one to know one,’ I guess.” Her pale white cheeks were starting to redden a little.

I shook my head. “Being a moneylender hasn’t stopped people from saying things like that about me too.”  _ Sometimes it makes people want to say it more, _ I could have added on as a joke. But I didn’t. I wanted her to know how seriously I also felt about this.

“Well, um...thank you. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone.” Her brown eyes widened. “But who’s calling you fat and ugly, Miss Vitkus? Why, I’d say you’re the prettiest girl in this village by far.” 

“Takes one to know one,” I stammered back. “Oh -- by that I meant --”

She laughed again. Oh, I loved that sound. “No no, I know what you meant.”

___

“I need another loan, Wanda...Seriously, this time.”

And there we were again a week or so later, back on that now-sunnier farm. “Seriously? Then what were you doing all those other times?” I joked.

“Paying back those loans,  _ remember?” _ Her blue kerchief today was embroidered with her first name in big curvy letters. Last week, I came over and she taught me how to do that with my name, too. “But seriously, I...I need another cow. Abigail is lonely.” Like herself, Estera’s cow also had a Hebrew name. Estera told me that her own parents had named her for a Biblical Jewish queen and heroine from a vast kingdom in the southwest.

I looked over at Abigail, a cute little brown cow on the other side of the wooden fence. I didn’t know much about animals, but Abigail seemed to just be chewing absentmindedly on some grass. Minding her own business. “She seems alright to me…”

Estera sighed. “Alright, you got me. Abigail is fine. I on the other hand…” She sighed again. “I did truly need the money to buy Abigail. I did. But I  _ didn’t _ really need the money for the bottles or the orchard. I did make some money for myself by trade before my master craftswoman found out that I was Jewish...By the way, that’s why I started this farm. Because I wasn’t sure if any other place of business would take me. So, I made my own.”

“...So then what was the point of all of these visits?” I asked slowly. “Did you just invite me over here time after time for no reason?” I froze. “Or because you felt  _ sorry _ for me?” I could barely spit that sentence out. It already felt like I got enough of that from everyone else --

“No! No! No, Wanda,” Estera insisted. “I kept inviting you over because I liked seeing you. I liked flirting with you and I wanted to gauge if you...uh...might be interested in a courtship with me.”

I blinked. “Oh. A courtship? I mean…I do really really want that too, it’s just...we’re not in the tsar’s court. We wouldn’t be ‘courting’ in that sense.”

“Oh…” In a huff, she grabbed me into a hug. “You know what I mean, Wanda.”

“Yes,” I laughed, and for once it sounded purer than gold. And my brothers and Miryem would be so happy for me! “Yes, I do.”


End file.
